Stealing rocks is one of their big problems???? Reminds me of the Hall & Oats song "Out of Touch"

I smell rock tax.

There are alot of old stone walls in Connecticut that were used to mark boundaries of farmer's land/pastures. They can be seen frequently on some of Connecticut's hiking trails. People/hikers sometimes will remove rocks from these walls and take them home for landscaping projects or to make fireplaces/firerings.

They need signs bearing this inscription: Take only pictures, leave only footprints, and leave all rocks unturned in their natural setting

Maybe the state can hire ADP to wire the larger rocks so a signal is sent to the rangers alerting them to rock theft if the rocks are disturbed. They can put the ADP signs on the beach as a deterrent

I have stolen rocks from Acadia, when my children were little we collected the ones they thought looked cool. I never thought it was that big a deal.

That ugly sign is the biggest problem that I see.

Acadia is one big rock. Is this really such an issue that they have to have Park Rangers patroling looking for the rock stealers?

The pretty granite rocks are still here, you just need to come to my beautiful back yard to see them.

How long before a beach rock is worth more than the U.S. dollar?

And here I was thinking all those cars with the rear springs bottomed out was just big ole aunt nellie in the back seat. Who would have thought the car was loaded to the gills with beach rocks. Please Gov. can't you send some stimulas money? There must be something you can do to stop this madness. PLEASE HELP! In just a few short months the rising ocean levels will totally erode acadia if this madness continues.

If every visitor that enters that park takes a rock there will be no reason to give Acadia the "National Park" name. With people taking the beaurtiful non renewable resource what do people expect to conclude from this in the long run? 'Rock theft' might sound frivolous but realistic.

I think most people would consider taking a few stones a harmless thing and never realize it is breaking the law. It stands to reason when you multiply one rock by thousands of people visiting each year. I love looking for unusual stones on beaches. I've never looked or taken any from Acadia Park. I do have a few from Wilson's Beach on Campobello. I told the Customs agent I had them when we came back across the border and he just smiled and said " No problem ". I know now I wouldn't do it again since I realize the impact it can have on the environment at a beach or park.

This may seem like a trivial problem, but it is not. When you multiply one or two rocks times the millions of visitors to Acadia over many years, it isn't long before the whole landscape is changed irreparably. A perfect example is the Petrified Forest in AZ. When I was young we used to visit every few years, and the ground was covered by millions of small fragments of the ancient trees. Almost everyone who visited picked up at least one small "rock" to bring home as a souvenir. When I went back a couple of years ago, almost nothing was left but a few stumps in the Museum. What had once been an amazing national treasure has become just another wind-blown patch of desert.

The same problem goes on in most of the national parks across the country--everything from ancient pueblos to meadows with very rare flowers and wildlife. It may seem funny, and an object of sarcasm and ridicule, but the problem is real. Think of it--if everyone in town was free to come to your home and take a souvenir, it would not be long before your house was a vacant lot. Laugh all you want, and express your disdain for people who want to protect the natural environment, but leave the rocks alone.

My good grief. Does anyone have a freakin' violin?

Man are there a whole lot of idots on this site! Taking a rock may not seem like much but if everyone takes one then they are all soon gone (and these are polished beach rocks of which there is a limited and finite supply - not just random pieces of cliffs and mountains that yes, are quite numerous). And the real problrem is folks who don't just take one as a souvenier but hundreds or more at one time for whatever reason. And those of you who clelebrate this sort of taking should be stoned to death with the very same stones.

And those that think this is the Park Sevice's highest priority are idiots as well. It is just one thing among many, many others and just becasue this is the story of the day in the newspaper doesn't make it the Park Service's primary effort, but just one among hundreds that simply cannot be ignored. But your minds are so ignorant and limited that you think that because it is in the newspaper it is also the Park's top priority. Gladly the folks who run the park are far more sane, rational and level headed than you all and I do hope you go there, try to steal some ricks and get caught for doing it and I hope that a list of you ofenders get published in the paper and the puiishment for that is that stoning with the rocks (you took or tried to take) that I mentioned once already above.

And to that person who implies thay have some of these rocks in their own backyard, I guess you don't care if I just come into your yard and and other private spcaes and take rocks (or whatever else I please) because there is no end to the supply of rocks in the world (and other stuff) and thus they are free to take from anywhere at anytime from anyone. Idiot!

This all reminds me of the song: "Your So Vain!"

The reason this is a problem is evident by the ambivalence shown in these remarks.

If it is not yours, it is called stealing. Leave our beautiful state of Maine alone. I believe and hope the ignorant statements by a few on here are from people who are not natives. Our state suffers every year because those from away come and litter our land and high ways and take things that don't belong to them or us , for that matter. All of the things people come to enjoy belong to the land for ALL of us to enjoy. Many of us take so much for granted. Once it is all gone, people will notice then.

I stepped on a rock and beneath my foot it moved out of it's place...was I to put it back?

The more tickets the park can write the more revenue the park gets......

now it's the rock police???? the rocks hurt their feet........... clean up the beaches....................

Witless bloggers' comments convince me this bit of wisdom applies to them...

"Fools care nothing for thoughtful discourse;

all they do is run off at the mouth." Proverbs 18:2 The Message

Rocks have feelings too!

All these people talking about if its not yours its stealing, and the sort. I pay just as much for the upkeep of the park, and paid just as much to get in to the park so as far as I am concerned those rocks are just as much mine as any of yours. So bite me.

Oh, no! I've been in possession of stolen property for about 50 years! Is there a statute of limitations for rock theft?

And gregdavid, it is "YOU'RE So Vain"...

Hey, I pay auto excise tax just like you do so your car is just as much mine as it is yours. So bite me!

Always fun to counter the stupidist arguments ever with yet even stupider ones, that is for sure!

Also, rocks don't have feelings and living being that do are just experincing and illusion of consciousness and thus mught as well be a rock too. But no worries, it will all go away when dead and decomposed back to the the stuff of stars from which we all sprung in the first place. (viz., no soul, no god, no heaven, no afterlife, no angels, no deamons, no nothing but what you can see and feel or what science can prove exists - except that science seems to indicate that even existence may not be all that we think it is but just an illusion as well. So, not only no Super-Natural but really no Natural either. Go figure).

Opps, You're not your. My bad. I know better (unlike many others on this list that are unable to decipher you're comment.)

(That final YOU'RE there was just to irk you some more but I am sure it ain't goin' to git you alot. Aww-rite!)

(as was the use of ain't, goin', git and alot, that I SNUCK in to drive you even more nuts you english major you.) }:-)

(And I PLEAD guilty for it and should be HUNG). And the DATA IS Conclusive to that effect.)

And if my spelling sucks at times it is a hated keyboard artifact plus dyslexia and a screen resolution that makes these characters very small.

Plus I am too lazy to compose in a spell checkable window and paste back to here. I wish this compose box had spell check!

You want rocks...come on up to our farm in The County. We've got WAY more than we need or want! Please....don't tell me that rocks aren't a renewable resource. Every year the frost pushes another couple houndred up out of our pasture. Maybe when global warming hits full force Baxter will be the new Schoodic Point! Go Global Warming........hurray ocean front property in Southern Aroostook!!!

In response to On 7/11/09 at 1:39 PM, gregdavid - You pay auto excise tax so the roads are just as much yours as they are mine.

You're not supposed to take rocks from any beach or any tidal area. You're not supposed to take anything PERIOD from any state or national park They're refuges, as in preserved areas, for the public to enjoy.

I'm not sure what this non-renewable resource thing is when it comes to rocks. The farmer in the County makes a good point, and I would only observe that a ride around Schoodic Point after a storm (and especially in the spring) will reveal new rocks all over the place, brought in fresh from the sea. Some of them up in the crotches of trees, on the far side of the road. Mother Nature is making and polishing rocks all the time.

I agree that it is a park, and should not be viewed or used as an alternative to a commercial supply of landcaping stone, but the Park service is a little out of control on this one.Taking down cairns and then claiming to randomly redistribute the stones???? Please! Next thing, sand castles will be on the verboten list.

Brace yourselves, some NRA member out there is about to tell us that the rocks will be safer now that people are allowed to run around Acadia with concealed weapons.

We went to Prince Edward Island a year or so ago. They actually have signs suggesting that you take some of the pretty red sandstone home with you. PEI is smaller than Maine and sandstone is softer than granite. I should think if it was such a big issue they might be more worried than us about it. First of all, everyone doesn't want a rock. Secondly, I'll bet those who wanna protect the rocks eat the ripe blueberries they find along the roads and pathways of Acadia and every other park they visit. Stop it. That takes away food from the park fauna and they'll all starve to death.

I have been diving for scallops and sea urchins off of seawall for 20 years. The beach rocks are a renewable resource. The supply stretches all the way out past the Duck Islands. Those NorEasters we get during the winter and spring bring more rocks ashore than Chinbro could remove. Several times each year, State dump trucks have to plow the rocks off of the road.

The Park Storm Troopers are unaware of that because they, like the tourists they persecute, are only here for the summer.

Since man made "Global Warming!" is becoming more and more recognized for the sham it is, Henny Penny had to invent a new CRISIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT A SOFT JOB. THE ROCK POLICE

Someone has to do the difficult, sixty thousand a year (and medical benefits), with 401k match and a nice retirement plan, Federal jobs.

Life is a b!tch.

By the way, is skipping stones illegal, too?!?

Perhaps the rocks should all be anchored down with steel cable. Sounds like a great candidate for the President's stimulus plan to keep people working.

These people are not just stealing from the NPS but from their spouses, siblings and future grandchildren. CM1113 must be so much fun to hang out with, I mean with his rock collection and all. Just cuz you pay to go into the park doesn’t mean you can take what you want. I bet you don’t take whatever you want from Fenway Park, movie theaters or museums. Have we become a society that no longer uses common sense and actually has to be told not to steal from the backbone of American landscape? How about we have more people like the ones that show up to the beach and help out by picking random debris that may wash up. Rock thievery represents all that is wrong with us as a whole and I for one am tired of being represented by such deviants! I am actually sickened by the ignorance exhibited by the obtuse feelings of the rock collector supporters. They probably double dip chips at group functions and roll through stop signs too. Sinners.